A Lesson in Caring
by Momosportif
Summary: Catastrophe strikes at HQ when the Order's most ill-tempered exorcist catches a cold but help comes in the most unexpected way when Tiedoll makes a surprise visit. A story about the bond between students and teachers.Tiedoll and Kanda are Hoshino's. Enjoy


Oof...Just wanted to say to those of you who have read "999,999" that this was written before that...you can see how I kind of had to build up the courage to actually write them as a pairing now... :3 Hope you enjoy!

* * *

"No!"

"Please, mister exorcist! None of this!"

"Iie, iie!"

"My God! SPECIAL ASSISTANCE AT BED 3! HURRY!" The white-frocked nurses descended on the bed like vultures on carrion.

Except they weren't ruthless scavengers and their prey _definitely_ wasn't dead.

"IIE, IIE!" Pale skin stretched as fine muscles contracted repeatedly in the struggle to writhe out of the latex grasp of his assailants.

"Please relax! You're in no state-"

"GET OFF OF ME!!"

"Lay down, you can't leave you're-"

"I AM NOT HURT! I DO NOT GET HURT! I DON'T NEED YOU!"

"Yes, your recovery from the fall was truly spectacular, but that's not the issue-"

"I'M NOT HURT!! LET ME GO!!"

Unregistered by usually all-seeing ebony eyes and unnoticed by the preoccupied swarm of nurses, a sturdy shadow had crept up to the head of the bed.

"Your being injured or not is not the point-"

"I'M NOT HURT SO LET ME GO!!"

A quiet but strong voice interrupted the exchange,

"No, you're right. You aren't hurt, you're sick."

"Gah!" The last thing the ebony eyes caught before consciousness slipped from their grasp was shocked nurses pressing palms over silent squeals and two blinking lenses he wished he had noticed before then. "Chisuko!"

* * *

"Ah!" Kanda Yu sat up abruptly, heart suddenly accelerating due to the unfamiliar surroundings. Loose hair swayed like a wind-battered waterfall as he quickly turned from side to side in an attempt to pinpoint his location.

"Oh! Are you awake finally?"

A growl swelled in his throat and threatened to rise and escape.

"That was quite a thwack I gave you! Sorry! I meant for it to be more of a gentle tap-"

"You!" The growl came out in his accusation despite attempts to tame it. Growling was not respectful.

"Hm? Me? What about me?"

Kanda took a deep breath, attempting to calm down before speaking again. The result was a somewhat exhaled question,

"What are you doing here?"

"It's okay. You don't have to be civil to me. I understand how frustrated you are. It's much more healthy to just let your anger out."

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE AND WHY DID YOU KNOCK ME OUT AND, AND- CHOO!" The high-pitched report of Kanda's sneeze echoed in the sparsely furnished hospital room. His thin brows knit in confusion and it's constant companion anger. Even if he had had the time to compose himself, Kanda felt he was justified in his death glare despite the fact that glaring, especially in a way that expressed a wish for the glare-ee to spontaneously combust, was not respectful.

"Bless you." Tiedoll accepted the glare as he turned in his chair by the window. In fact, much to Kanda's chagrin, he entertained it by maintaining eye contact.

Kanda studied the placid features of his mentor, attempting to find some difference, some incriminating sign of age to remark coldly on but his search yielded no results. His gensui had always looked as he did now; droopy half-closed eyes framed by thick-lensed glasses, unshaved stubble that somehow maintained the same sparse arrangement for decades speckling his boxy jaw, untrimmed mustache making a fringe over his solemn mouth, tired hands that were always busy with a sketch.

Tiedoll turned back to face the window after a few seconds of steadily gazing back at Kanda with an unreadable expression. Kanda ripped his eyes away from his once-teacher's back and studied his clenched hands. Several emotions boiled up inside him as he battled himself over how to react, the distracting and acute awareness of his master's presence making a decision harder to reach. At last, submission prevailed and Kanda reclined, releasing the blanket from his vice grip and a held breath.

Tiedoll's poker face might have fooled an acquaintance, but Kanda did not even need to have seen the specks of pleading in his tawny eyes to know that his obnoxiously maternal gensui wanted, more than anything, for him to behave. The aura of over-sensitivity was quite enough of a hint for Kanda. Aside from these reasons, Kanda had discovered a strange new emotion he hesitated to label and believed complying to Tiedoll's wishes would provide an excellent source of stalls. When he had settled in and opened his mouth to ask his questions a second time, Tiedoll's voice curtailed his queries,

"I knocked you out because I knew you weren't about to calm down and come quietly and I'm here because you're here." The skritch of charcoal on paper carried on the lulling tone of his reply and into Kanda's response,

"That's not what I meant. I meant why are you at Headquarters."

"Like I said, because you're here."

Thin brows knit at the ceiling.

"I don't understand what you mean."

"Let's just say I felt it was time to come home for a bit and, coincidentally, you needed me."

"I don't need you."

There was a brief beat of total silence. Even the scratching ramblings of the sketch in the making paused.

"Fair enough," a deluge of hurt gushed from the window. Pain tasted bitter and Kanda swallowed it down so the flavor wouldn't linger long enough to form regret. "The hospital staff needed me, to be completely accurate."

"Choo!"

"Bless y-"

"Save your blessings. And save your breath. You'll be wasting it if you stick around and try to keep me here."

The chair wheezed as Tiedoll stood. Kanda started and then composed himself as best he could, refusing to grant his ex-teacher the satisfaction of turning to face him.

In his peripheral vision, Kanda could see the blinking lenses and knew melancholic eyes were boring into him from behind them. He clenched his teeth to keep form speaking.

Growling was _not_ respectful.

A cool, rough hand slid over his forehead, brushing his cheek in it's ascent and stealing any words he could have spoken in protest.

"Mmm…"

Kanda felt every inch of skin uncovered by the hand burn. It had been hot the whole time and he'd never noticed until he'd felt how very cool Tiedoll's hand was. Every limb ached with a heaviness he only faintly remembered from his youth but his forehead felt so light. The breath was vacuumed out of his lungs and held in the back of his throat, unable to escape his mouth, but he was irrefutably breathing.

"Hm…"

The touch was gone and for the first time Kanda felt it. He was sick.

"G-gensui!" He bit his cheek after the words left his mouth. Kanda did not gasp. Kanda did not stutter. He did not use any name that might suggest any sort of affection or attachment, he did not waste his breath calling out or things he didn't need, and he did not break any of these self-imposed rules. But it was too late.

"You have quite the fever, Kanda!"

The sound of the chair being dragged across the floor filled the gap in conversation. Kanda's discipline had already cracked and was now falling away entirely as desperation clawed it's way out of him and the realization sunk in that he, Kanda, was actually impeded, sick, hurt. Not of use.

"But… but, Gensui…"

"Oh, come now, Kanda! What's that look for? It's just a cold! If you rest up and stop stressing yourself, the nurses will get you in shape in no time."

"Please go."

"They told me about that jump you took,"

"Please go,"

"Thrown down a waterfall, right?"

"I am asking nicely."

"And for what? Why did you let that happen to yourself? You may have a hardier body than most but that doesn't mean you can just put it in harms way every chance you get-"

"If you are gong to speak yelling-words, you should speak them right and go ahead and yell them-"

"Unless, of course, it's your intention to put yourself in harm's way-"

"I am asking once more for you to please go-"

"Do you want to die?"

Had there been any other noise, it would have tipped the question into the realm of whispers but the earnest tone was alone. Kanda stared at the ceiling, eyes empty. Then he turned abruptly to face his gensui.

"Che! Do not insult me. I have asked you to please go three times while letting you rant and ramble about things I already know and you are making me more sick by making me angry which is exactly what you claimed I should avoid and then you practically called me stupid by suggesting that I want to di-"

"That's as good as a 'no' to me!" Tiedoll picked up his drawing pad again and resumed sketching.

"Che!" Kanda sat up. "Old man, you have some nerve stringing me along like that! If you wanted to teach me one of your useless, corny, sentimental life lessons, you should have just-"

"Kanda!" The gentle, cold hands firmly grasped his shoulders oxymoronically in a cradle/vice grip and forced him down, "Kanda…"

"CHOO!"

"Ble-…" Tiedoll reconsidered his response, producing a handkerchief and holding it to Kanda's delicate nose. "Blow."

"Che!"

"Kanda-"

"Choo!"

"Come now!"

Kanda blew gingerly, putting his own hand over Tiedoll's in an attempt to commandeer control of the handkerchief with no success.

"There you go!" He gently pinched, raised, and repositioned. "Again."

Kanda sighed and obliged, conceding defeat. From years of studying under Tiedoll he had learned that the best way to get him to go away was to obey him or, better yet, think ahead to his ultimate goal and skip straight to achieving that. He put both hands on Tiedoll's wrist.

"That's enough. I need to rest."

Either he couldn't contain his feelings or he didn't feel like trying, but a smile hid the corners of his mouth behind his moustache as he stuffed the handkerchief in a navy pocket and took up his drawing again. The soothing strokes filled the silence as Kanda delicately shut his lids.

"By the way, gensui, how long was I out?"

"Oh… about twenty-four hours…"

His eyes snapped open.

"Excuse me?"

* * *

"His fever's gone up considerably, hasn't it?"

"Yes. Rather perplexing, but if he continues resting like this it should improve marginally. Thank goodness you arrived or we wouldn't have even gotten him to stay!"

"No… he knows what's best for himself. He would have come to his senses eventually."

"Well, I would hope so, but… In any case, he needs to take two of these when he wakes up and I'll be sending a nurse to keep him cool-"

"I can do that."

"Well, thank you kindly, but I'm sure you have business elsewhere, don't you?"

"I assure you that the most important place for me to be right now is here."

"Well, um… as you wish, general!"

* * *

"Aah!" Kanda blinked himself awake and struggled instinctively to get from beneath the yet-to-be identified heat source. He sat up.

"Ssh, ssh."

Something damp and heavy slid from beneath his bangs and plopped to his lap. Tiedoll picked it up and laid it aside in a small bowl. "Lay back down, Kanda."

"It's hot," he slunk his legs out from under the thin sheet as he reclined. "It's hot!"

"Yes, I should say so! You have a temperature of about 40 degrees."

Kanda started at the touch of a freezing washcloth on his forehead and involuntarily shivered despite the fact he felt like his whole body was on fire. The cloth rubbed in minute circles, inching slowly but steadily down his face to his chin to his neck and down the curve where his shoulder met the pulsing veins along his elegantly arched throat before making it's way back up in the constant series of spirals.

On top of the heat and the bleariness and the pain and a growing feeling of childish distress that infuriated him more than anything else, there was that emotion he thought he had suppressed earlier and could not, would not, name. And it was there, following the cold along the curves of his face and shoulders.

Despite himself, Kanda became hypnotized by the gyrations creeping across his skin and forgot about the heat and bleariness and pain and distress. He forgot about everything and there was only the pulse of the fingers guiding the freezing washcloth and the soothing sting of coolness as it caressed him unwaveringly. He concentrated solely on the cloth, solely on the cold, solely on that nameless feeling. He meditated.

--

World's away, Tiedoll kept mopping at his ex-student's face with one hand while unbuttoning his sweat-soaked shirt with the other. Under normal circumstances, touching the temperamental eighteen year-old was completely out of the question but he knew there would be no protest.

Kanda's eyes were asleep even though they were open.

His lips were slightly parted and the expression this created was one Tiedoll remembered from about thirteen years ago; the only other time (by his recollections) that Kanda had been sick. With the chicken pox.

It was at this point in Tiedoll's thought process that the memories were unleashed and ran rampant, consuming all his senses. He paused for the length of a blink and then resumed his vigil with the zeal of the Tiedoll who had sat up for nights on end until the frail wisp of a student he had collected from the ruins of human-inhabited Japan was healthy, hale, and as hateful as usual once more.

* * *

When Kanda woke up it was dark outside. The blanket was pulled up to his chin and felt comfortingly cool on his bare chest. Sweat-sodden hair stuck to his back as he sat up, gruffly shoving the sheet away and sliding a hand past the nape of his neck and out to loosen the cascade of hair. The bed lamp was on, illuminating the bowl, his neatly folded shirt, and-

"Gensui?" Upon receiving no reply, Kanda gently shook Tiedoll's shoulder.

"Hmm…" Tiedoll shifted slightly, head turning towards Kanda in the nest made by his arms but not making any response beyond this.

"Gensui…" Kanda, unable to think of a more appropriate thing to do in this situation, looked at his clasped hands and tried to remember what had happened prior to his falling asleep. There had been heat and light and… heat and… cold. There had been cold, he remembered, cold and…

It was beginning to come back now and as the scenes filled in the gaps in his memory, the worst possible breach in his code of "never do these" occurred while his temperature rose for reasons entirely unrelated to his wellbeing. For once, something was happening that Kanda Yu could not slash at until it stopped.

He was blushing.

* * *

"Two of these?"

"Yes, mister exorcist, just two; one dose in the morning, one at night."

"Hm."

"… How is your fever? Going down at all?… My, my! Yes, it's gone down quite a lot, if not entirely disappeared! Well, good! We were worrying it might develop into more than a cold for a while there… we'll just be needing you for a couple more days to see-"

"One."

"One?"

"One day. Then I go."

"Well, it may take a couple, dear, just to be sure-"

"_I_ am sure. One day."

"But-"

"I am sure. Once in the morning, once at night. Two pills per dose."

"Well, um… as you wish, exorcist!"

* * *

"Oooh…"

"Good morning, gensui."

"Oh! Kanda!" Tiedoll adjusted his glasses and sat up, popping slightly in a few joints. "Sorry, I feel asleep, I didn't think you'd be waking so soon-"

"It's noon."

"Noon? Already?"

"Yes." Kanda sipped tea from a small cup before returning it to the tray he balanced in his lap. He lifted the teapot with poise and held it fetchingly over another glass. "Tea?"

"No thanks, Kanda, I'd rather you drink it all… It should really help your congestion."

"Yes…" Kanda hid a sideways glance behind another sip of tea in order to observe his gensui rub droopy eyes behind his glasses without openly staring. After all, staring was not respectful. "Someone is tired."

"Hm?…"

Kanda braced himself. It had taken him all morning to plan this out, since last night to work up the courage, and four days to actually realize.

"Gensui…" he reached over to capture one of Tiedoll's hands from it's relaxed position in his lap and pulled it over to rest on the bed. "You can go now. I'm getting out today and I know how important it is for you to leave head quarters as soon as possible and how much you prefer being out on the job, doing, working. Being useful, gensui. Just like me. So," Kanda had been intently studying the hand he held captive in order to avoid eye contact but managed to muster enough courage to look up and meet the magnified gaze of his ex-teacher, "please go. Go for me, gensui, and be of use to the Order, useful enough for both of us. Please." He squeezed the rough hand with both of his before letting it go and preoccupying himself with rearranging the tea tray repeatedly as he waited for a response.

Tiedoll lunged forward unexpectedly, clamping a hand to Kanda's forehead.

"Nani!?" Kanda clutched the tray on his tensed knees to keep it from spilling and glared up at his assailant's sincerely concerned visage. Tiedoll sat down and let his breath escape in a puff, looking perplexed.

"That's funny… no fever… Kanda, do you fell all right? Head hurt? Vision blurred? Chest constricting-"

"_Nani!?_"

"No! Hold on, lie down, I'll call the doctor-"

"GENSUI!"

Tiedoll froze in his rush to the door and turned to his furious student.

"Just because I am being kind and, and," the word clung to his lips, apparently reluctant to be used in a description of himself, "_sensitive_ and showing all the signs of having learned from your stealthily inserted, useless, corny, sentimental life lesson doesn't mean that I am mentally disturbed, _baka_!" He spat the last word out remorselessly, all concern for respect consumed in the bonfire of his fury.

Tiedoll blinked at him and then, much to Kanda's bemusement, burst into laughter.

"Hmph!" Kanda jerked his face to the side, shutting his eyes sharply and setting the tray on the bedside table hard as his mentor's peals of laughter decrescendoed into chuckles.

"Forgive me, Kanda-"

"Che."

"I just assumed-"

"Che!"

"You've never said such personal, sweet things, to me of all people, I-"

"I am not sweet!"

"Oh, Kanda," Tiedoll leaned over the foot of the bed.

"What are you-ah!" Kanda's words died in his throat at the gentle touch of his gensui's hand on his cheek and then the even gentler brush of lips on his forehead. It wasn't soft or smooth like Kanda had (rather foolishly, he admitted) expected all kisses to be but bristly (due to the moustache, he realized) and rough. And tender. Very tender.

"You've always been the one to surprise me, Kanda!"

Even if he'd had a response, there was no chance of him being able to vocalize it.

Tiedoll dragged the chair back to the window and plopped onto the foot of Kanda's bed with a sigh. "But, I'm sorry… I can't honor your request quite yet."

"_What_?! But, gensui-gah!" Kanda's eyes fluttered closed despite desperate attempts to keep them open.

He had always been annoyingly fast for his age.

"Chisuko."

* * *

"Oh! Mister exorcist! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you!"

"Where is he?"

"'He'... who-"

"Where is the General!?"

"Oh! Oh, um, I'm sorry, he left, um, about an hour ago, it must have been, yes, but he did ask us to give you-"

"Chisuko!"

"Pardon- Eek!" Kanda lunged out of the bed, snatching his shirt off the bedside table as he went and thoroughly startling the nurse.

"That bastard…" Several curses followed this as he buttoned and then re-buttoned (after realizing that he had mismatched the holes and buttons in his fury) his shirt and before the nurse had regained composure the heated echoes of muttered curses were all that were left of the Black Order's most ill tempered exorcist.

* * *

"Anxious to be off?"

"Hm… I suppose… It's been a rough visit."

"Oh?"

"It was good to be home though. Eat a square meal and sweep the cobwebs out of my room…"

"Really… I was under the impression that you spent the entire time in the hospital, through no injury of your own." One pair of feet stopped in it's clangy descent to the dock where a small rickety craft was waiting to ferry exorcists and finders out of Headquarters. Tiedoll ran a hand through his mess of graying brown hair and then continued walking with a short laugh.

"Ha! Never could get away with much without you noticing…"

"I try."

In unison they stepped onto the dock, footsteps muffled as they crossed the pier.

"Kanda was sick."

"I heard."

"I didn't think he would take too kindly to the idea of sitting cooped up in the ward all day so I offered my company."

"Convenient that you arrived when you did," remarked Komui idly, staring down the tunnel with an extremely slight smile playing across his lips.

"Well. I had a feeling…"

"And perhaps a notification."

"Well… more of a confirmation, really…"

"I'm guessing that Marie was instructed to contact you if such a mishap were to occur."

"Marie, yes, but several finders too, and Daisya, but he's on a job currently, if I'm not mistaken." Tiedoll removed his glasses to rub the lenses on his overcoat.

"Yes, he's been gone for a week now, I think… should be returning soon."

Tiedoll replaced his glasses on their usual perch and followed Komui's gaze to the abysmal tunnel.

"I'm waiting for my lecture, if you could, please."

"Let's not lose focus, general. I understand your reasons, there are people I care for too, but we must try our best to keep our minds on, and spend our time reaching, the ultimate goal." A very faint breeze tugged at their cloaks as it poured forth from their cloaks as it poured forth from the cavernous depths like a yawn. "I'm waiting to be corrected now, general, if you could hurry. Reever always assumes I'm at fault if I'm late getting back to the office."

"No corrections, Komui. You're right," they moved on towards the boat, "but old men will have their peculiarities and digressions now and then and Kanda is one of mine. He needed to be taught something and these circumstances may never present themselves again. Seize the moment, as they say."

"I've been keeping on top of him about that. You shouldn't worry-"

"He was okay this time, actually. Holding together pretty well now, and I suppose he'll do just as well without me. Keep your eye on him though, would you?"

"I intend to."

Tiedoll stepped, with some stiffness, into the waiting vessel.

"Well, looks like I'm off again…"

"Best of luck, general."

"GENSUI!!" The clatter of the metal stairs made the group at the pier jump. "GENSUI!!" Kanda jumped the last few steps to reach the dock and tore down it's length, steps resounding loudly down the cavern. He jerked to a halt beside Komui, breathing heavily and glaring venomously. Tiedoll blinked in surprise. "You!" He pointed at Tiedoll fiercely and continued between ragged breaths, "You _bastard_!"

"Hm? Me? What about me?"

"What the hell did you mean by-" he panted, "why did you just-" Kanda inhaled a large breath and exhaled, "just because you dislike goodbyes does not mean you can knock me unconscious and disappear again for who knows how long, and all this without expecting me to be angry, and-"

"I expected you to be angry. You're always angry-"

"I am not, shut up!" Kanda stood fully, having caught his breath. "Shut up."

"You would do the same, Kanda… You hate goodbyes."

"But at least I have enough respect to do them properly!" Kanda stepped down lightly onto the boat's rim, balancing perfectly and then leaning over.

"Kanda, what are you-oh!" Any words Tiedoll could have spoken were wiped away by the slim hands on his shoulders and the touch of the tentative but resolute lips on his cheek. Tiedoll, unlike Kanda, had no preconceptions as to how the kiss might feel merely because the thought of Kanda kissing him had never, _never_, occurred to him.

"Gensui, don't be gone for so long next time… You got too old this time and I think that if I let you get away again you won't come back the way we want you to." He concentrated on whispering the words he had promised himself he would say and not on the dumbfounded looking finder he could see in the edge of his vision. "I need you." Kanda straightened and turned sharply, leaping to shore with agility. The boat barely rocked.

Komui averted his eyes in an attempt to not appear as though he'd been staring as Kanda stalked past smirking self-satisfactorily. He was proud of himself. However, merely because Tiedoll had managed to prove to him that he, Kanda, could actually allow himself to be cared for, and even more monumentally, reciprocate these feelings, did not mean that this equilibrium of affection would be met between him and anyone but his ex-teacher. His teacher.

At the top of the stairs Kanda turned to watch the boat take off. Tiedoll waved. Kanda (with some awkwardness due to a lack of practice) waved back as the little craft made it's way into the shadows and out of his sight. He quickly trotted up the stairs to avoid a discussion with Komui. Just as he was about to open the door that led to the spiraling halls of the Black Order a sound like a shotgun exploded, echoing in the cavernous port and making Kanda freeze.

"ACHOO!"


End file.
